"How dare you ants enter the residence of the Supreme Beings? Prepare to die!!!"
The raging crimson flames instantly swallowed up the adventurers, and with a few tragic wails, their fragile lives turned to charcoal.
Shalltear, who had successfully eliminated the invaders, showed no joy on her face. Instead, she stared at the charred corpses on the ground with an increasingly furious expression.
In the next second, the corpses shattered into energy fragments, slowly dissolving until they completely vanished.
This was a type of doppelganger created from energy, similar to a Heroic Spirit Warrior. Although they looked identical to real people, they were merely puppets. After observing these invaders, the Supreme Beings explained this answer to all the Guardians. Although they were just puppets, the damage they caused to the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick was real.
It was clear that the Church of Destiny intended to use this despicable method to gradually exhaust the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick's strength.
Although the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had plundered a large amount of wealth from the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire during the last raid, and the cost of repairing floors one to three was very cheap, the Great Tomb of Nazarick was able to fully afford this expenditure.
But if the duration was extended to ten or a hundred years, for the Great Tomb with no means to replenish its wealth, this kind of harassment would become a heavy burden.
"Perhaps the enemy intends to provoke us, hoping we will act rashly and fall into their trap."
Demiurge and Albedo, Nazarick's strategists, both agreed with this view, so the truth was most likely close to that.
Even after realizing this, it was very complicated for the Great Tomb to deal with a slow and draining tactic.
In the end, they could only adopt Demiurge's suggestion: to send sporadic monsters to attack the enemy's territory, using the same harassment tactics to divert their attention, or at the very least, use this method to vent the pent-up frustration in their own hearts.
The capital of the Re-Estize Kingdom, E-Rantel.
The situation of this Kingdom's military fortress was currently very different from before. Thanks to Lakyus's order to gather the population, E-Rantel's residential population had almost reached saturation.
The housing problem for the large number of relocated people could be temporarily solved by using the empty land in the city's military barracks. E-Rantel itself was a military fortress, every year receiving large numbers of conscripted troops and those gathered by the Kingdom's nobles.
However, the daily work and life aspects became extremely troublesome.
The increase in the city's population led to a huge consumption of daily living materials. If it weren't for the official opening of grain reserves and the continuous transportation of noble grain deposits from scattered territories around the city, E-Rantel might have experienced civil unrest long ago.
In response to this hidden danger, the officials were not completely idle. The city hall recently issued a notice stating that they were preparing to establish new village settlements outside the city and cultivate corresponding crop planting areas. All people who lost their jobs due to the relocation would be assigned to the new villages and receive a plot of land for their families.
As soon as this news came out, the restless commoners were immediately relieved, even feeling some anticipation.
In the past, although they also farmed, legally, their land belonged to the nobles, and they had to pay a grain tax on their harvest every year. Under these circumstances, even if they worked hard and the heavens didn't send a drought, heavy rain, or other disasters, the tax rates arbitrarily set by the black-hearted nobles were enough to swallow up all the grain they had painstakingly grown.
According to the city hall's announcement, although the ownership of the reclaimed land in the new villages was still not theirs, the tax rate on agricultural output was uniformly regulated and would not exceed 30% at most. This regulation would be written into the Kingdom's law, guaranteed to be permanently effective under the reputation of the Einherjar Family.
The credibility guarantee of the nobles was actually small in the eyes of the common people, but the Einherjar Family was somewhat different. Everyone knew that the current Kingdom was controlled by the Einherjar Family, and they were very likely to become the Kingdom's new royal family.
As for the royal family, since their status was higher than other nobles and they needed to care more about their reputation, their guarantee could still be somewhat anticipated.
In the forest outside E-Rantel, commoners who had responded to the city hall's recruitment were using tools provided by the officials to chop down tall trees. These trees would become the building materials for the new villages in the future.
Clang, clang, clang!
"Everyone! Stop! It's lunchtime!!!"
A voice amplified by a magic item echoed throughout the forest. All the lumberjacks who heard the news stopped their work and walked toward the gathering point with joyous expressions.
If accepting the city hall's recruitment order before was a choice made out of necessity, then this job now was a dream come true, something they never dared to imagine.
A large number of people lined up neatly in a long queue at the clearing by the forest. The staff in charge of distributing food took a piece of bread as thick as an arm from a large ceramic pot, paired with a bowl of fresh meat stew ladled from a large pot next to it, forming a simple working meal that was handed to the lumberjack at the front of the line.
The lumberjack walked to the side with a joyous expression, somewhat impatiently biting into the long bread in his hand.
Soft, sweet, and mixed with special yellow fibrous powder in the middle—even the nobles in the past might never have tasted this 'meat floss' bread! When they returned at night, everyone would also receive two more breads to take home.
He was already looking forward to the scene of his little children scrambling at his feet when he brought the food home.
The lumberjack greedily stole a glance at the large pot at the staff's feet. It was a magic item, seemingly able to continuously produce food. Of course, such thoughts only lasted for a second. Beside the staff distributing food, there were tall warriors wearing black armor and holding long spears. Anyone who dared to violate order would be strictly dealt with by them.
Through the special emblem engraved on the chest of their armor, everyone knew that these warriors were from that mysterious organization—the Church of Destiny.
The food distribution process went smoothly. About fifteen minutes later, all the lumberjacks had received their bread and meat stew and found a cool corner to enjoy their meal. Just then, a series of chaotic explosions suddenly sounded in the distance.
Boom, boom, boom!
The lumberjacks were drawn by the sound and couldn't help but turn their heads in the direction of the source.
"Everyone! Stay where you are and don't move!!!"
The guard in charge shouted, then flew into the air. He was actually a Divine Magic caster who could use flight magic!
"It's... Undead!?"
Before long, the guard arrived at the battle location.
Looking down, a force of hundreds of Undead had appeared at the edge of the forest and was engaging the standby guards there. Most of the Undead were low-tier Undead like zombies and animated corpses. The standby guards at the edge of the forest were Divine Magic casters capable of using third-tier magic. After summoning their angel guards, even if they were less than a tenth of the enemy's number, it was enough to deal with this group of enemies.
However, among the engaged forces, there were two extremely brave Undead warriors. Even five standby guards found it difficult to stop their progress.
"It's Death Knights!!!"